Portals – Technical Aspects

1. Portals – Technical Aspects Rajan Bhardvaj ( rbhardvaj@worldbank.org) The World Bank 30 November 2005

2. Questions Posed • Technology Aspects (including choice of platform, examples of specific software used) • Portal architecture • Description of specific functionalities provided by the portal • Interaction between central portal and agency portals • Interaction between central portal and local government portals • Integration of authentication systems (PKI, Single-Sign-On etc) • Integration of payment systems (organizational and technical aspects) • Which other functionalities are provided by the central portal (e.g. content management, search, personalization) Portal Technology - World Bank

3. What is a portal? A User Perspective • At least three definitions • One place stop to get many services and information about a topic or area • A starting point or gateway to other resources Characteristics • Personalized space • Types • General portal e.g. yahoo • Specialized portal • e.g. purchasing portal • Is amazon.com a portal? Portal Technology - World Bank

4. Key Points (User Perspective) • Unified information architecture • Hierarchy and organization of information • Allows for a good frame of reference • Think library and classification of books • A single user identity • Across a portal, the user should be able to use a single identity and password • Consistency of behavior and look and feel Portal Technology - World Bank

5. Portal vs. Portal Software • Different perspectives: • Portal as seen by user • Portals can be built using many tools and technologies including open source • Yahoo, Google and many others are built on open technologies • Many typically do not use ‘portal product’ per se • Portals can be built using dedicated ‘Portal Products’ as well • More later.. Portal Technology - World Bank

6. Federation of Portals • Even from an information architecture perspective, a single portal may be just ‘too big’ • Architecture may support a federation of portals: • At least one entry point that provides a directory and some services • A set of sub-portals that provide specific services or information Portal Technology - World Bank

7. Federation Example • Audience Segmented • Individual vs. Business vs. Employee • Geographically Distributed • Country -> States -> City • Topically Distributed • General • Health • Taxes • … • Combination • Geographical and topical • Many other combinations as well Portal Technology - World Bank

8. What would the portal do? • Examples: • Directory of resources and links • Information and knowledge • Agriculture best practices? • Forms – Downloads/Submission? • E-Business • Taxes due account statement • File taxes electronically • Obtain no-object certificates • … Portal Technology - World Bank

9. Examples – US Government Portal • http://firstgov.gov/index.shtml Portal Technology - World Bank

10. Before Technology Selection • DO develop requirements first • PROCESS matters – how and who get content in and how • PILOTDepending on the budget and scale • DO a pilot project focused on functionality • Start small if possible and iterate through the technical infrastructure (i.e. be prepared to throw out first release) Portal Technology - World Bank

11. Identity Management • A very critical element to make or break a portal • Who are you?Need to identify userse.g. US has social security • Does the audience have a unique id? • THIS IS NOT A TECHNOLOGY PROBLEM • Process for issuing and managing id’s and password needs to be setup Portal Technology - World Bank

12. Performance • Manage scale. • # of usersAre you scaling to thousands, millions, 10’s of millions of users? • Traffic • Static content vs. dynamic content (from a database or other system) • Different needs may indicate different approaches Portal Technology - World Bank

13. What Platform? • Questions: • Buy vs. Build • Open Source vs. Commercial • Unix/Linux/Java vs. Windows/Microsoft • …. Portal Technology - World Bank

14. Product vs. Build • Why Product? Usual reasons: • Time to market • Capability • Reliability • Process and methodologies • Why Build? • Can meet YOUR requirements • May have some cost savings (note May) • May need both anyway. • Generally, product preferred where feasible Portal Technology - World Bank

15. Open Source vs. Commercial Software • Open source is perfectly suitable for many,many cases – Google and Yahoo run on open source. • Can include end products or middleware • Middleware – Apache Tomcat, jBoss, Ruby or Rails… and many others • EndProducts – Plone, Alfresco, LifeRay… • Commercial software may be needed for many cases • Integrating with back ends • Out of the box solution • Reliability and Support Portal Technology - World Bank

16. Unix/Linux/Java vs. Windows/Microsoft • Issue on two fronts: • What operating system? (Windows vs. Unix) • What middleware stack? Java vs. .net or other such as PHP/Ruby… • Generally, more of a religious issue than anything else • Generally speaking, Linux/Java + Scripting seems to have a little more momentum Portal Technology - World Bank

17. Portal – Implementation Approach • Define requirements, information architecture and look and feel • Ensure ‘business’ and not technical ownership • But, keep it cross-functional and user focused • Define Success Factors • Keep it simple • pick a couple of segments (citizen and small business for instance) • Stay away from personalization • Stay low tech • Iterate • Have an deliverable every six months with the first release possibly taking a little more • Have a feedback system and get usage statistic Portal Technology - World Bank

18. What Not To Do DO NOT: • Focus on technology only • Portals are not about technology !! • Implementation teams can get carried away by ‘cool’ features; users usually want simple things • Have long delivery cycles • Setup 6 month releases and keep to that • DO ensure QUICK wins • Ignore process • Getting governance, agreements, processes can take a LONG time Portal Technology - World Bank

19. World Bank Example • Most Popular • External – News, Projects Database, Research • Internal - People Search and Projects • About 10% of sites get 80% of traffic • What we did not do well • Community ModelSites are informational but do not connect people • Somewhat supply driven rather than demand driven • Search - improved marginally with a ‘low-tech’ appliance solution • Generally, took too long Portal Technology - World Bank

20. Q. Portal Functionality • Refer to definition of portal • Building a portal typically needs: • Application server / platform • Search engine • Content Management • Collaboration/Communities • Discussion, blogs etc. • Integration capabilities • Web services or others Portal Technology - World Bank

21. Q. Interaction Between Portals • Interaction between the central, agency and local government portals needs further investigation • Important to focus on user behaviors and expectation and not on silos • But, breaking of silos often difficult to do & can lead to ownership issues • Important to show agency or local government leadership • No simple answers Portal Technology - World Bank

22. Q. Authentication, Single Sign On … • Do have a single user identity (like social security in the US) • Preferable have a single userid/password • Single Sign on really may not matter that much • PKI is complex to implement • Consider leaving to latter phases or implementing only where security needs are paramount Portal Technology - World Bank

23. Q. Payment Systems… • Needs Discussion Portal Technology - World Bank

24. Q & A Portal Technology - World Bank